Gold medals flow again for Australia as Kurtis Marschall defends pole vault title

Australia rediscovered their winning feeling on day nine of the Commonwealth Games as Kurtis Marschall successfully defended his gold medal in the men’s pole vault to conclude a day on which the nation added a further nine golds to their tally.

While Australia stalled on day eight in Birmingham, the golds came with a rush from early until late on Saturday, moving onto 59 in the medal table, nine ahead of nearest rivals England who reached the half century mark with two days of competition remaining.

Marschall joined the great Steve Hooker – the man who inspired him to take up the sport – in winning back-to-back pole vault titles after clearing 5.70m to beat the English duo of Adam Hague and Harry Coppell, who took silver and bronze respectively.

Earlier Ollie Hoare evoked memories of Australian legend Herb Elliott with a remarkable last stride triumph in the men’s 1500 metres to end a 64-year drought in the race. The 25-year-old timed his run to perfection at Alexander Stadium when setting a new Games record of 3:30.12.

Jemima Montag started the Australian momentum in the 10km walk, crediting her resilience to the genetics she inherited from her grandmother Judith, a holocaust survivor. A gold medallist in the 20km walk on the Gold Coast four years ago, she put in a title-winning performance in a race confined to the track and to 10km on Saturday.

Montag wears a gold bracelet honouring her grandmother, who died shortly before last year’s Tokyo Olympics. With an aunt, she went through her old love letters after the Tokyo Olympics, having them translated, to piece together more about her grandmother’s extraordinary resilience.

“In some letters and journal entries, she wrote about just trying to make it through the next